MORE ON THE 'PROTEST' IN FRONT

OF THE BG CONSULATE IN TORONTO

Posted by TE on October 11, 2000, 2:13:12

These two were at the consulate at about 1:15 and there were already something like 25-30 people. Most of the people they saw there were aged above 55. A few younger guys appeared later. There was the Flag with the Vergina Star and a Slogan mentioning the name of Bulgaria. This slogan was sort of recycled because it had previously been used for demonstrations against the Greeks and the name 'Bulgaria' was just pasted on top 'Greece'. A Canadian Flag with some additional re-working that added red and black was flown, too. There had been a (TV?) reporter of Chinese origin to film the event. Macedonian music was on.

The weather was bad and possibly this has restrained some people from attending, let us be fair. There were short speeches in both Macedonian and English in which Bulgaria was accused of not allowing the expression of Macedonian consciousness, Macedonians were not free to gather on public places and speak their language, the OMO Ilinden organization's registration suspended etc.

There were appeals for the freedom of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia - the latter was mentioned the last , the accent fell on Bulgaria. The priest from the Church was expected to come but he never appeared and the organizers explained that the priest was busy with weddings going on (2 weedings).

The two Pirinci who went to see what all this was about were among the others and at a certain point interfered into the talks. The younger guy on listening to the accusations against Bulgaria just asked: "Who recognized first Macedonia's Independence?" The protester stared at him and said "Bulgaria". "Then why are you here?" was the next question. At this point the guy gathered the attention and was declared a 'Bulgar agent'. Insults poured immediately, and actually never stopped completely. An ardent lady, aged 50 or so, was particularly fervent. A man from the protesters said to the Pirin guy he should mind what he was talking or else he might get liquidated.

The guy then explained he was from Pirin Macedonia and told the protesters where he came from. Some sort of dialogue started. The guy told them plainly that what was being told here was not corresponding to the truth and did not contribute to the peace and stability of the region and was against interests of both Macedonia and Bulgaria. It soon became clear that most of the attendees had never been to Bulgaria and their opinions on Bulgaria were more or less frozen somewhere in the fifties. They expressed a conviction that in Bulgaria you are pursued if you express a Macedonian feeling, a Macedonian would not be allowed to gather in public places etc.

The Pirnici just said it had nothing to do with reality. At a certain moment one of the protester erupted and started claiming that Bulgaria was oppressive and does not permit the Macedonians to organize and oppresses a Macedonian organization. Then the protester asked somebody around what the name of the Macedonian organization was. At this moment one of the organizers jumped and scolded him: It is the OMO Ilinden, how so you do not know it! It was sort of confusing because the protester - a fervent Macedonian did not know the name of the Macedonian organization he had come to defend. Well ... things like these happen.

Then conversations went into the direction of discussing how similar and how different Bulgarians and Macedonians were. The Pirin guy just explained to one of the guys that we all dance 'oro' drink the same 'wines', 'grozdovitsa' and that the language is the same. He was contested on the latter remark, but when he asked how so they discuss and understand perfectly if languages were that different he got no answers. Instead he was explained that Bulgarians were different - Mongols and Tartars with slanted eyes with gestures showing what a slanted eye looked like. This was evidently too much, for neither younger guy from Pirin nor his father expected that. Ironically, the reporter the Macedonists had brought with them to film the event was of Chinese origin.

Among others the Pirin guy asked the protesters (he was talking to) who sent them, who supports them, why there were no younger people? Why was it that their perception of Bulgaria and Macedonian issues were so desperately out-dated. No decent answer was given. Actually several among the protesters expressed opinions as to how fine it was within Yugoslavia, and that they would get along well with the Serbs. A lot of cursing against Lupcho for his treacherous policy. Georgi Dimitrov, Kiro Gligorov were highly praised. The present day Macedonian government was reproached for not raising the true Macedonian Flag.

At this moment the older Pirin guy asked: "Which flag do you mean - Vancho's Flag?" This enraged the protesters and one of them cut it short that Vancho has killed anybody Macedonian around. He might have eventually been right had he said that Vancho killed almost anybody Serb and pro-Serb oppressing Macedonians but this did not took place.

Many more details can be enumerated but in any case both sides - the Two Pirinci and the group of the protesters were hardly enchanted with one another. In most of the cases the protesters appeared as highly arrogant, incredibly ignorant, definitely pro-Yugoslav and Serbophiles. One or two of them looked drunk and behaved so. As mentioned one of the protesters had no idea what Macedonian organization he had to defend at the event. All were more than convinced that Macedonian organizations other than OMO Ilinden were not Macedonian, or were not with members from Macedonian origin. Mostly old people were there although the Macedonian Church was just across the street so anybody from the weddings could come out for 15 min at least. Actually the whole show lasted like 45 min.

Coincidentally, this protest was speedily organized at a moment when Milosevic was loosing power in Yugoslavia, and EU and USA attention was mostly favourable to Serbs. With a protest like that the protesters actually did their best to influence opinion here that Bulgaria and Macedonia are a future field of unrest and disputes very much similar like Bosnia, while Serbia instead is rising as a stability factor on the Balkans. Out of this Macedonia and Bulgaria lost and Serbia got an indirect support.

As to understanding between Macedonia and Bulgaria - this protest could not have cared less. It is mostly a pity that the United Macedonians Organizations could only count on such ignorant, brain-washed, ill-tempered and desperately out-of-dated elderly guys with no trace of independent thinking and thinking at all to stage such a pitiful show in which the participants showed so little tolerance towards two guys from Pirin - precisely the people they so much want to annex to Macedonia.

This show was a complete failure, and a very miserable one at that. And let me tell you why. The elder Pirin guy was from the generation who had attended the Macedonisation courses during Dmitrov's time and still cherished some Macedonist feelings. These ruffians managed in just 30 minutes to show him that their task was not the unification of Macedonians but the arrogant dis-union of people from Macedonia and Macedonians and were promoting anti-Macedonian and anti-Bulgarian policy inspired by evil minds. This was an incredible achievement, indeed!

Thus the Protest was a success!